Brussels, 03/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - To supplement the information published in EUROPE on Saturday 30 June (p.11) on the Preliminary Draft Budget (PDB) for 2002, the Budgetary Committee decided, on top of the scrapping of the reserve of EUR 1 billion for possible expenditure connected with BSE and foot and mouth disease, to make an across the board cut of EUR 200 million in the credits under Heading 1 (Agriculture), except for the following sections: - veterinary and plant health spending (part of which will be used to pay foot and mouth bills in 2002); - markets where reform negotiations have not yet been concluded, namely rice and sheep and goat meat. Agricultural spending will total EUR 45.021 billion (compared with the EUR 46.22 billion set out in the PDB), which leaves a margin of below the ceiling of EUR 1.565 billion (EUR 365 million in the initial proposal), but EU representatives refused to maintain this EUR 1 billion reserve since the European Commission may still change the 2002 Budget by means of a letter of amendment.
Credits for external policy (Heading 4) were cut by EUR 53 million in terms of commitments and EUR 129 million in terms of payments including (-14 million for commitments and - 25 million for payments) aid for the Balkans. The EUR 125 million reserve for the fisheries agreement with Morocco has been maintained but EUR 45 million of it will be used for the fisheries agreements with Mauritania and Senegal. The requests for credits for the functioning of other institutions (Court of Auditors, Court of Justice and the Council) were reduced - the forecasts exceeded the ceiling of Heading 5 (Administrative Spending), but the Budgetary Committee managed to create a margin of EUR 53.4 million by cutting the amount estimated by the Commission by EUR 30.5 million.
The Budgetary Committee cut the PDB by EUR 380 million (payment credits) for funding pre-accession aid (EUR 100 million from SAPARD and EUR 250 million from the ISPA budget).